The Endmeme

The endmeme is an important concept because it endangers all life on the planet. And it’s getting stronger and stronger since I coined the term in Mirror Reversal in 2007. It’s the belief that “Christ Is Coming” or the Holy Prophet will soon return riding his flying horse Baraq through the streets of Mecca to scourge the infidel and reward the faithful.

The endmeme is dangerous because the vast majority of humanity is infected by it. Most people believe in one of the craziest books ever written, The Book Revelation, the work of frustrated and hopeless lifetime prisoner who must have been on a bad LSD trip. St. John the Devine cursed the world because two thousand years later, our precious planet is in mortal danger because of his psychotic work.

The danger of a self-fulfilling prophecy looms closer and closer. As I write this, Jews and Mohammadans rattle their sabres while Christians all over the world wait anxiously to enter the fray. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu just yesterday issued an ominous warning within just a few miles of the fields of Armageddon.

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A point of clarification: When I was researching the glossary of memetic terms for the epilogue of Mirror Reversal, I could scarcely believe there was no term for the concept of the second coming of Christ or the Holy Prophet. I quickly coined the term “endmeme” because the belief in the Book of Revelation, the Rapture, the anti-Christ, Armageddon, and other such mythology had to be dangerous because it enhances the possibility of a self-fulfilling prophecy. We’re talking about the belief in the annihilation of our planet and billions of people believe it. We’re talking about the wasting of four billion years of evolution—and there wasn’t even a word to conceptualize it.

The concept that all life on the planet, not only humans, and the evolution of thought itself, was threatened by outrageous and weird religious beliefs, was shocking and disturbing. To my mind it was unbearable to contemplate: the writings of a slave/prisoner, a deranged lifer on a tiny island in the Aegean Sea called Patmos, could bring about the end of the world 2000 years later.

At times I feel like a modern day Louis Pasteur trying to warn people of the danger. In the 1850s, fellow scientists couldn’t conceive of such nonsense as an invisible germ or microorganism causing devastating diseases as anthrax, small pox, influenza or tuberculosis. Most believed disease was the work of the devil. Now 160 years later an equally invisible agent causes disease of a different kind, an insidious strand of computer code causes people to violate nature and move inevitably toward religious war as it has for 1380 years since the death of Mohammad.

Memetics has been widely dismissed as pseudoscience; there’s no replicating code as in genetics and DNA. But to me I see effects of the endmeme as certainly as canker sores caused by smallpox. Christ’s birthplace is the “Holy Land.” Don’t make me laugh. It’s the land of the endmeme. There’ve been more battles than churches, more dead soldiers than supplicants kneeling in prayer.

my worry is somewhat tangential to your endmeme - the concept of Dominionism. for those who don't know, Dominionism is:

"Defined in its simplest form, Christian Dominionism is a political approach to Christian faith and practice based on a literalistic interpretation of Chapter 1 verse 28 of the Book of Genesis. Wherein, they perceive themselves as the “Chosen” and are commanded to “subdue” the earth and “have dominion” over all living creatures.

The goal of Christian Dominionism is to abolish Separation of Church and State and to establish the United States as a distinctively Christian Nation based upon Old Testament Mosaic Law. Dominionism is an umbrella term that harbors many divergent groups claiming a foundation in Christianity. You must be “born again”…accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour…and profess your personal relationship with Christ.” All Christians are not Dominionist, but all Dominionists claim Christianity."

and that's all i'm aware of, I'm sure there's more. additionally, there are thousands of nameless Dominionists in school boards, city governments, and state legislatures.

from my understanding, once they get hold of the 7 mountains of dominionsim, then Jesus will bring about Armageddon. i wouldn't be surprised if any of these crackpots were in charge if they'd be willing to give Armageddon a nice little push.

the scary part to me is how easy they seem to be able to win over constituents. many of their supporters know nothing about Dominionism, but for example, how many on the far right believe 100% that America is a Christian Nation? just about all of them, and that is a fundamental tenant to Dominionism. Privatization is another staple in the Dominionist theme. Have you met a right winger these days who thinks that government can do anything well? it seems that they have transformed the Republican base to the Dominionist Party without them even knowing it!

these folks are anti-Global warming, pro-Israel in a BIG way, and anti-Muslim. if they continue to gain political relevance, some of your endmeme scenarios could easily play out. am i scared to death of this? no, but it is a concern.

And the Islamic side is just as extremist. What’s especially scary is that alpha males on both sides gain power and status like warring tribes of baboons. That’s all it is, monkey behavior, and the competing religions are preventing the human species from breaking out of the evolutionary stasis.

The images give us an idea how macabre these ideologies are. I wish people could see this mumbo-jumbo boogety-boo for what it is.

Who’s the dude with the halo supposed to be? I’d like to see him get a job as a short order cook in McDonalds or a truck driver

Speaking of mumbo-jumbo boogety-boo, it's interesting that the peace symbol is portrayed as representing an evil threat to humanity. They also have an article on the site about "Looking backward to look forward".

Ruth, "it's interesting that the peace symbol is portrayed as representing an evil threat to humanity."

I'm missing that. I see index fingers forming the peace symbol, but how is it a threat?

Speaking of the peace symbol, Barbara Walker has a great rap on the Vesica Piscis

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the yonic, ancient Hindu symbol of the female reproductive organ. Humans evolved from fish and have reproductive hormones chemically identical to clams and other invertebrates. So the symbol went through numerous ramifications and variations even evolving into the Christian fish that you see on the trunks of cars and the peace symbol. Some ingenious bishop must have formulated the idea of turning the above symbol sideways and putting a little fish in there, being that was the original concept.

Now I get it. Really sick. The old-fashioned peace symbol that the hippies worn was supposed to evoke a feeling of peace and harmony. The symbol in the image made by the fingers is one of entanglement and strained contortion. Reading into it, it appears to say, “Don’t trust the one who comes preaching peace.”

I’m not up on this anti-Christ mythology, but I get a chill thinking about it. If billions of religious people believe those who preach peace are intrinsically evil, it’s never going to happen.

Ruth, of course art (if we can call it that) is subjective and we all see the world in different ways. The point I wanted to make was the peace symbol goes back to ancient times and originates in the top leaves of the olive branch offered by Irene, the Goddess of Peace. It elicits feelings of harmony and symmetry.

In the symbol used above by the Dominionists, the symmetry is severely distorted and warped. In composition, noticed how the right-hand side is overweightd by the hands entering from the lower and upper right sides to complete the symbol. The balance is disfigured so as to create a feeling of disharmony and nausea.

I’d conjecture the underlying message is to distrust those who use this symbol. I think I read somewhere, though I didn’t study the subject much, that the anti-Christ as part of a diabolical deception will preach peace in order to gain trust. He will then unmask and all hell will break loose.

What’s especially scary, if we can’t trust those preaching peace, who the heck can we trust? The warmongers are all that’s left. Again we see the endmeme pulling the strings as we move closer to Armageddon.

It's interesting how we interpret the peace symbol above so differently. You see warped symmetry and overloading on the right to the point of distortion. I see three people very close to one another, intimate distance. It's got a friendly feel because they're not afraid to touch. It seems natural that both upper and lower hands of the third person come from the same side, despite there being more loading on that side symmetry wise. Instead of disfigured balance, I see the C shape of the third person's arms and hands as theme and variation to the C shape of the left half of the peace circle. Not saying you're wrong. I just perceive different aesthetics.